As the word "drop-in" implies, you can use MariaDB, once it's installed, like you've always been using MySQL. MariaDB pretends to be MySQL and it will execute all the usual mysql commands, without your having to change a thing.

This version of the installer installs MariaDB-5.5.25 (the latest I can find) into /usr/local/mariadb-5.5.25 and makes a symlink to /usr/local/mysql which, in fact, points to /usr/local/mariadb-5.5.25.

So, all the mysql commands just work. Like if you do a

mysql --version

in the command line, you will get :

Server version: 5.5.25-MariaDB Source distribution

and a MariaDB command prompt, but other than that you can work like you've always done in MySQL.

If you have a working MySQL database, like one that was installed by our own MySQL installer, the MariaDB installer will attempt to move your current databases over (if you choose to do the Upgrade option, rather than a Clean Install).

Finally, because MariaDB's command gets called when you execute /usr/local/mysql, even the MySQL Start Up Preferences Pane (that we've built together with our MySQL installer) continues to work.

So, what's the point of all this?

Well, many develoeprs are concerned over the future of MySQL, now that it's in the arms of Oracle. The existence of MariaDB, brought into life by the original developers of MySQL, gives hope that a free, independent, quality, database option continues to be available, should Oracle decide one day to close-source or worse kill, if it comes to that, MySQL.

So, this gives us a third option to work with—MySQL, Postgres and now MariaDB. I've just tested Liya (our friendly database table editor) with MariaDB and it continues to work. If MariaDB is running on your server instead of MySQL, simply choose MySQL as the database option to access your new MariaDB database.

Obviously, in this arrangement, MySQL has to be stopped from running, in order to have MariaDB run and impersonate it.

Maybe a future version of our installer will allow MariaDB to be run on another port alongside MySQL. But I will have to improve Liya so that it will accept a port number as a connection option. (Currently it doesn't have such an option.)

So, I hope now to use more of MariaDB and see what I can learn from it. If you do download the Installer, let me know if it works for you and also what you think of MariaDB.